Full Circle
by Antigone2
Summary: Usagi, Mamoru, post-battle discussions and a total lack of M&Ms. Fluffy as hell. one-shot


so Lost and Found is on hiatus until after I take the JLPT in Dec because woah fuck that test just... yeah.

But I can, apparently, still write shorts.

this takes place directly after that episode in R when a monster who can sorta of control minds attacks Ami's insecurities, fails to get Usagi down after shouting insults at her, and then beats the shit out of Tuxedo Kamen. that's really all you need to know I think.

(there are no m&ms in this story.)

* * *

The knock on the door came just seconds after Mamoru sat down - his book unopened in his hands. He would have considered ignoring it, except for the fact that the exuberance of the fists pounding his door gave little question to who it was. And she would not be ignored, even if he wanted to. Which he usually didn't.

Mamoru stood slowly, groaning as his muscles protested the movement, and made his way to the door. The knocking didn't stop until he opened the door to Usagi's scandalized gasp.

"Mamo-chan, what are you doing up and walking around?!" she demanded, pushing her way past him into the doorway, kicking off her shoes and shrugging off her jacket in one jerky movement.

"Well, _you_ were the one knocking on my do-"

"You should be _resting_!" she cut him off with a no-nonsense push backwards, and he found himself once again sitting on the sofa, this time with Usagi perched next to him and fixing him with a incredulous look.

"Are you okay?" she said, peering closer into his eyes, brows drawing together.

"I'm ... fine," Mamoru answered, "Usako, what is this all about?"

"Mamo-chan, you fell off a _roof_," she said, her arms flapping outward and her voice reaching a shrill pitch. "Off a roof! I've _never_ seen a droid beat someone up so badly. I mean, she _really_ got you."

"Alright, alright," he muttered, "thanks for pointing that out." Then, "What are you doing?"

Usagi had pushed herself closer to him, until she was practically on his lap. Her brow was wrinkled in concentration as she poked at his hand, arm, and shoulders. "Mamo-chan, I'm checking if you are _hurt_."

"You know I heal quickly, I'm a little sore but otherwise okay."

"Anything feel broken?" she said, punching at his chest a little.

"That's not really how you check for broken bones," he said, his voice tinged slightly with amusement, but Usagi just scrunched up her nose and reached over him to pull on his other arm.

Apparently satisfied with her findings there, she sat up on her knees and pressed her fingers to his temples, shifting his head from side to side. A move Mamoru knew would have been dangerous had he _actually_ been seriously injured, but he let it slide. He admitted he was probably enjoying this more than he should be.

"Look at me," she ordered, peering into his eyes with a narrowed gaze. She held up a hand with three fingers raised. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Usako-"

"Well?! Do you know today's date? year? who is the prime minister?"

"Usako, I'm_ fine_."

"I dunno Mamo-chan, I'm not finding a pulse," she said nervously, pressing her fingers haphazardly into his wrist.

"Well, then, I must be dead," he replied flatly. Usagi looked up at him with a look of panic that faded quickly to anger as she saw the mirth in his eyes.

"Mamo-chan, this is _serious_!" she snapped, her cheeks puffing out. Mamoru bit back the urge to laugh, and gently took her hand in his.

"Here, like this," he said, placing her two fingers on his wrist, and watching her face soften as she felt his pulse beating regularly under her fingertips.

"Oh," she said softly. "Thanks." She was definitely pink now. "I guess - I guess it's fine."

"How's Ami?" he asked, as Usagi moved on to pressing her fingers into each of his knees, apparently checking for broken kneecaps even though she had just _seen_ him walk when he let her in.

"She's off studying with some kids in our class. Tomorrow I'm gonna stop by her place and check on her but - I really think she's fine now."

"What about you?" he asked suddenly. Usagi looked up from his legs in confusion.

"Me? I'm fine. The droid didn't touch me."

"But it said some things," Mamoru prodded. Usagi frowned a little.

"I guess. It didn't really bug me." She shrugged, still involved in checking Mamoru over for wounds. She pulled on his opposite hand and gave each finger a little tug. "I've been called worse."

"Still-"

Usagi poked at his elbow, moved his arm back and forth, "Please, Mamo-chan. I may be 'flighty and flat-chested' but I'm well aware I'm not 'a failure at everything'," she said, mimicking the monster's words from earlier. "What some monster creep thinks of me doesn't matter."

"I mean, Rei's called me worse," Usagi continued, "Like in the last week."

Mamoru sighed.

"I don't care about things like that," Usagi said. She paused, still holding his palm, and glanced at him out of the side of her eye. "I mean, there was even this stuck-up guy who used to say things like about how I'd never get a boyfriend because I wasn't lady-like." Mamoru straightened up a little, eyes widening slightly.

Usagi was pulling on a pigtail, face scrunched up with exaggerated pensiveness. "And something about grown-up things not suiting me, how I eat too much and would turn into a meat bun..."

"Had you just hit him on your head with your shoe for the third time? Perhaps that put him in a bad mood," Mamoru forced himself to keep a straight face at Usagi's arching brow.

"Any guy who would consider me attractive was ... guh, I don't remember! Something about dust goes in a dust bin. I mean, why would _anyone_ say anything so _mean_?"

Mamoru rolled his head back against the couch cushion, resisting the urge to slap himself in the forehead. "I don't know, odango atama, were you babbling on about some guy you had a crush on?"

Usagi seemed taken aback. "Was I? I don't remember."

Mamoru watched her from under narrowed eyelids. "Uh-huh."

She giggled suddenly, her eyes light with surprise and mischief. She pounced, her hands pushing on his arms, apparently completely forgetting that five minutes ago she had been so worried about his bones spontaneously cracking. "Were you_ jealous, _Chiba Mamoru?"

"Of course not. Not in the least," he answered, making her squeal as he put his hands on her waist and pulled her down over him. "Of an aggravating girl like you?"

But she was ignoring him, in a fit of delighted giggles, her knees pressing into the sides of his stomach, her elbows resting on either side of his head. "You were- you were! I can't believe it! You tried to be soooo cool, Mamo-chan, but I knew it! I knew it! I knew yo-"

She was silenced momentarily when he kissed her, pulling her down with an arm around her shoulders, a hand tangled in her hair. "I knew it," Usagi chirped again, as soon as they pulled apart for air. "I knew it! I kne-" He kissed her again, shifting his body to cradle her above him. This time she was too breathless to continue her mantra, so Mamoru took advantage of the momentary silence to get the final word in before he kissed her again so quickly she couldn't retort.

"Odango atama, you had no idea."


End file.
